


when you can’t stand i’ll stand for you

by wrennette



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Desertion, Post-Umbara, Treat, Waxer lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-08-29 10:54:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16742638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wrennette/pseuds/wrennette
Summary: How many names recited in remembrance of brothers presumed dead belonged to troopers who simply walked away?





	when you can’t stand i’ll stand for you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MizGoat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MizGoat/gifts).



> title from "Coming For You" by Jenn Champion

Boil watched Waxer in the bacta tank and planned. After this immersion, his partner would have used up his allotment for bacta. Boil had already petitioned to have his own allotment transferred to Waxer, but he feared even that wouldn’t be enough to return Waxer to fighting strength. And a ‘trooper that couldn’t fight - well.

As a cadet, Boil had scoffed at the threat of decommissioning. They had inherent value as strong young fighters, he reasoned. It didn’t make sense to kill them, but especially not over some of the things the trainers threatened them about.

Boil was about four when the first of his batch disappeared – they didn’t even have names yet. A bit of disobedience one day though, and his brother was gone the next. That was when the whispers had started, when they started buttoning down on their emerging differences. That was the first disappearance, but not the last, and Boil wondered how many brothers made the decision he was reaching.

How many vod’e went missing in action because they just couldn’t take it anymore? Couldn’t continue on with that threat to themselves and their brothers hanging over them? How many names recited in remembrance of brothers presumed dead belonged to troopers who simply walked away?

Once upon a time, Boil would have labeled a deserter a coward, a traitor. Just a few years past, he’d despised Slick for his actions. Now, he began to see the bravery of walking away from everything he knew, all his family and friends, to start over. Now, he wished Slick had managed to reach the freedom he sought.

Even with the additional time in bacta after using Boil’s allotment, it was clear Waxer wouldn’t be fighting fit for a long time - too long by the GAR standards. There was no such luxury as extended convalescence for clone troopers. No such thing as a medical discharge. So when it became clear that Waxer would be recommended for decommissioning as Boil feared - well, he already had a plan half in place. 

Boil suspected the rest of the 212th wasn’t as oblivious as they pretended, but they all gave credible performances as men just going about their business. When the lots were pulled to pilot the ship back to the nearest medical station and Boil got the short straw, he was almost certain the fix was in. Waxer was the worst off of the injured being transported, the only one slated for transfer to Kamino. 

When Boil checked his manifest, Waxer was the only one unlisted. When Boil did a quick supply inventory, he was sure that not only his brothers, but General Kenobi had realized what was going on, and done what they could to help. There were enough supplies - medical and otherwise - to keep them going for months. Civilian clothes and datapads full of useful information - like how to spoof a transponder frequency and access certain governmental systems, like those used to issue civilian identification papers. Boil didn’t doubt they also had a protocol for the disappearance of himself and the ship lined up. Fairly confident they would be safe, Boil entered coordinates for a solidly Republican and hopefully clone friendly world - Ryloth.

Fearing there might still be a military presence in Lessu, Boil avoided the capitol. Besides, while he knew it was a bit naive to depend on the kindness of a child, he hoped that Numa’s family might be willing to at least help him sell the ship and find a place to live and a doctor for Waxer. With the credits the general had somehow arranged, and the additional funds from selling the ship, he was hopeful he could find a home for them. 

Nabat welcomed them with open arms, immeasurably bolstering Boil’s spirits. He wasn’t quite sure what he’d have done if his hopes hadn’t borne out. After the liberation of Ryloth though, vod’e were heroes to the locals. Boil promised himself he wouldn’t take advantage of that - at least, not more than he had to. He was depending a bit on the Twi’leks benevolence to keep from being reported as a deserter, and he’d need help too, until Waxer was back on his feet. 

Having spent much of their travel time studying the datapad stuffed with lessons on the Twi’lek language, Boil could manage a few heavily accented words. Most of the adult Twi’lek had at least a few words of Basic too, so they stumbled along, gesticulating and making do. Numa helped a ton, understanding Boil’s abbreviated sign language better than most, and translating. She was also a champ at letting Boil practice his words on her - and he wasn’t quite as embarrassed by his mispronunciations and lapses in memory when it was just her, rather than a shopkeeper or the local doctor.

From the notes their own medic had made, Boil knew Waxer was in for a long recovery. They’d had to do open heart surgery just to keep Waxer alive, and he’d been in a medically induced coma for some time to facilitate his repeated bacta immersions. Boil had never seen his partner so skinny, not that either of them had ever been heavy. Vod’e didn’t tend to be well fed enough to bulk up unless they were on the higher calorie rations that ARC troopers and some other specialized fields earned, and even on those it was sometimes hard to pack on weight. 

For weeks, Waxer lay comatose, fed through a tube that snaked down his throat, an IV line supplying fluids. He was able to breathe on his own, much to Boil’s relief. Boil spent hours every day in the small hospital, taking care of the physical therapy that would ensure Waxer was able to sit and walk when he woke, or reading aloud, practicing his Ryl to stimulate Waxer’s mind. Numa came as often as she could, telling stories about her days and snuggling against Waxer’s side. Eventually, the tests said his brain activity was increasing, and he would soon wake.

Waxer woke three months after he’d first been immersed, warm sunlight streaming over him. Nearby he could hear voices speaking quietly, and while he didn’t understand the conversation, he recognized that he was among friends. Boil. Numa. He didn’t know how he came to be planet-side on Ryloth, but he resolved almost instantly that it could wait. He’d thought he’d died on the twilit jungles of Umbara. He’d thought he would be decommissioned if he survived that killing field. A new unplanned life opened before him, and with a smile on his face, Waxer drifted back into a healing sleep.


End file.
